Improving the Performance of Land Tactical Digital Networks Using Measures of Network Capacity

Land tactical radio networks are used in military operations to create communication channels for tactical units at the force’s edge. These radios must work in a dynamic, contested environment where bandwidth is usually at a premium due to the limited radio capabilities and the many demands placed on the system. It is important therefore to manage the networks as efficiently as possible. Measuring the state and performance of the network is required to achieve this, which is a non-trivial exercise due to the complexity and variability of network designs. Any measurement schema must take into consideration the implementation, state and use of the radio network. Previous work in this area has concentrated on commercially available networks rather than the bespoke networks that are often employed in the military. As part of the SMARTNet research programme, this paper looks at techniques that are currently available for measuring a tactical network’s performance, investigates what other work needs to be done, and suggests a way forward. A simple network has been analysed mathematically and then emulated using the Enhanced Mobile Ad-hoc Network Emulator (EMANE) to highlight the issues discussed in this paper.